WHAT IS CULTURE?
Culture is the distinctive way of life of a group
Culture is that complex whole which includes
knowledge, beliefs, art, law, custom, and any other
capabilities and habits acquired by man as member of
the society. – Edward Tylor (English Anthropologist)
Culture refers to man’s social and material inventions,
man’s artificial or man-made environment including the
learned ways of doing things.
Culture refers to the artificial or man-made
environment as well as the behavioral aspects of man’s
way of life. It provides prescriptions and proscriptions
for group life – the values, customs, norms, rules, laws,
and sanctions for the deviance.
Culture comprises all the objects, ideas, beliefs, norms
of a group of people, and the meanings that the group
applies to each culture element. (Clark, 1988).
Culture is the social heritage of a society. It refers to the
customary ways in which groups organize their ways of
behaving, thinking and feeling and which they transmit
from one generation to another.
In sum, culture is that complex whole which consist of
knowledge, beliefs, ideas, habits, attitudes, skills,
abilities, values, norms, art, law, morals, customs,
traditions, feelings and other capabilities of man which
are acquired, learned and socially transmitted by man
from one generation to another through language and
living together as members of the society.
• CHARACTERISTICS OF CULTURE:
1. Culture is learned – Culture is acquired through
education, training and experience.
2. Culture is socially transmitted through
language – It is transmitted from one
generation to another through the medium of
language, verbal or nonverbal through gestures
or signs, orally or in writing.
3. Culture is a social product – Many persons
interacting with one another develop culture.
4. Culture is a source of gratification – It provides
satisfaction of man’s varied physiological,
psychological, social, emotional and spiritual
needs.
5. Culture is adaptive – Through inventions and
discoveries man has been able to overcome his
limitations to outdo all other animals.
6.
of people – The members of the society have
developed their unique way of life that suits
their needs and particular situation.
-ESKIMOS
7. Culture is material and non-material – material
culture, such as buildings, and machines, are
the products or outputs of the application of
man’s knowledge and skills, which are basically
non-material.
8. Culture has sanctions and controls – These
sanctions could be formal or informal.
Culture is stable yet dynamic – It is preserved
and accumulated, highly stable and continuous.
Culture is also changing. Culture grows and
accumulates with the passing of time.
9. Culture is an established pattern of behavior –
Members of a certain society act in a fairly
uniform, manner because they share mutual
beliefs, customs, and ways of doing things.
• COMPONENTS OF CULTURE:
NORMS- These are guidelines people are supposed to
following their relation to one another; They are shared
rules that specify what is right or wrong and the
appropriate and inappropriate behavior.
They indicate the standards of:
▪ Propriety
▪ Morality
▪ Legality
▪ Ethics
SOCIAL NORMS:
❑ Folkways- everyday habits, customs, traditions,
conventions of people obey without giving
much thought to the matter
SOCIAL NORMS:
❑ Mores- norms people consider vital to their
wellbeing and most cherished values;
▪ Special customs with moral and ethical
significance
▪ They are society’s code of ethics, moral
commandments and standards of morality
Two kinds of MORES
1. POSITIVE MORES/DUTY/THOU SHALL BEHAVIOR-
Duty refers to the behavior, which must and ought
to be done because they are ethically and morally
good.
Example: Giving assistance to the poor and the needy;
“Thou shall love God above all”
2. NEGATIVE MORES OR TABOO/THOU SHALL NOT
BEHAVIOR- societal prohibitions on certain acts
which must not be done because they are not only
illegal, but unethical and immoral.
Example: Prohibition against incest, cannibalism and
murder
SOCIAL NORMS:
❑ Laws- formalized norms enacted by people
vested with legitimate authority.
- sanctions, rewards and punishments that
compel people to obey the norms
Example: Revised Penal Code, Republic Acts, statutes,
Batas Pambansa
IDEAS, BELIEFS, VALUES-
• IDEAS- are non-material aspects of culture and
embody man’s conception of his physical, social and
cultural world
Example: idea of model community, idea of an educated
person, idea of alternative marriage
• BELIEFS- refer to a person’s conviction about a
certain idea; perception about reality and includes
the primitive ideas of the universe as well as the
scientist’s empirical view of the world.
Example: belief in spirits, belief in gravity, belief in life
after death
• VALUES- are abstract concepts of what is important
and worthwhile
-general ideas that individuals share about what is good
or bad, right or wrong, desirable and undesirable.
MATERIAL CULTURE- concrete and tangible objects
produced and used by man to satisfy his varied needs
and wants.
Example: prehistoric stone tools and weapons, modern
spaceships and weapons of mass destruction, burial
ground, factory site, football field
SYMBOLS- object, gesture, sound, color or design that
represents something “other than itself”
Example: Cross for Christianity, dove for peace
• OTHER SUB-CONCEPTS RELATED TO CULTURE
CULTURAL RELATIVISM- culture differ, so that a cultural
trait, act or idea has no meaning or function by itself but
has a meaning only within its cultural setting.
CULTURE SHOCK- the feeling of disbelief,
disorganization and frustration one experiences when
he encounters cultural patterns or practices which are
different from his.
ETHNOCENTRISM- feeling of superiority for one’s own
culture and to consider other culture as inferior, wrong,
strange or queer.
Example: belief of superiority of white race, extreme
Japanese nationalism
XENOCENTRISM- idea that foreign is best and that one’s
lifestyle, products or ideas are inferior to those of
others
Example: mania for imported goods, foreign lifestyles,
colonial mentality
NOBLE SAVAGE MENTALITY- the evaluation of one’s
culture and that of others based on the romantic notion
that the culture and way of life of the primitives or
other simple cultures is better, more acceptable and
more orderly.
Example: urbanites say that rural lifestyle is better
because they have simple needs, fresher air, food and
sunshine
SUBCULTURE- smaller groups which develop norms,
values, beliefs and special languages which make them
distinct from the broader society.
Example: Tagalogs, Ilokanos, Mangyans, Dumagats,
Catholics, Protestants, teen-agers, senior citizens, urban
dweller, elite of executive village
COUNTERCULTURE OR CONTRA CULTURE- subgroups
whose standards come in conflict with and oppose the
conventional standards of the dominant culture.
Example: criminals, drug addicts, prostitutes,
gunrunners and terrorists
CULTURE LAG- refers to the gap between the material
and non-material culture
Example: Muslims readily accepts modern means of
transportation and communication but remain steadfast
in the religious faith;
UNIVERSAL PATTERNS OF CULTUTRE- broad areas of
social living found in societies.
- Common to all culture
example: language, religious practice, family, social
systems, property, government, mythology
COMMON ELEMENTS IN UNIVERSAL PATTERNS OF
CULTURE
dancing, education, food, games, cooking, cooperative
labor, sports, ethics, medicine, music
FACTORS THAT ACCOUNT FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF
CULTURE
HUMAN BIOLOGICAL NEEDS AND DRIVES
NEED- is a bodily lack deprivation without which the
human body stands to perish.
Ex: food, water, air, sunlight, locomotion, rest and
sleep, elimination of body waste and sex
DRIVE- is that inner force or internal tension which
impels a person to do something to satisfy the need and
restore internal balance or equilibrium
Ex: hunger, thirst and sex drive (natural biological
processes)
SOCIETY AND CULTURE DICTATE
▪ Kind of food to be eaten
▪ the kind of liquid to be taken
▪ kind of clothing to be worn
▪ kind of sports and recreation to be engaged in
▪ kind of person to be taken in as mate
▪ social conditions for mating
• FACTORS THAT ACCOUNT FOR THE DEVELOPMENT
OF CULTURE
1. PSYCHOLOGICAL PROCESSES- the totality and
integration of an individual’s mental and thought
processes such as cognition, perception, memory,
emotions and other thinking processes.
- They are conditioned and affected by environment,
the society and culture in the place he lives
2. MAN’S HIGHLY DEVELOPED NERVOUS SYSTEM-
clinical and genetic studies have shown that man’s
nervous system is much more developed and
complex as compared to that of animals. The
biological difference enables man to emerge with
superior intelligence necessary for effective
adaptation to his environment and the resolution of
the problems of existence.
◦ He develops learned ways of doing things and
fashioned materials from his environment to
come up with useful products of man-made
objects.
◦ He develops culture
◦ Culture differentiates man from animals and
places him on top of the hierarchy of the animal
kingdom
3. MAN’S HIGHLY DEVELOP VOCAL APPARATUS- man
is endowed with a highly complex vocal apparatus
for effective speech or language.
4. MAN’S UPRIGHT POSTURE- man differs from other
animals on account of his upright posture or vertical
position.
5. PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT- the
physical or natural environment greatly affects
man’s economic activities for the satisfaction of his
needs and wants.
◦ IT CAN CONDITION MAN TO LIMIT IS CHOICES
ON THE AVAILABLE RESOURCES FOUND IN HIS
IMMEDIATE ENVIRONMENT.
• OTHER SUB-CONCEPTS RELATED TO CULTURE
◦ CULTURAL DIVERSITY- it refers to differences
and variety of beliefs practices, values and
meanings to each culture universal by the
members of a society or by different cultural
groups.
• FACTORS THAT ACCOUNT FOR DIVERSITIES OR
DIFFERENCES IN CULTURE
1. CULTURAL VARIABILITY
2. CULTURAL RELATIVITY
3. ENVIRONMENTAL DIFFERENCES
4. HUMAN INGENUITY AND ABILITY TO ABSORB
AND EXPAND NEW CULTURE

• FACTORS THAT ACCOUNT FOR DIVERSITIES OR

DIFFERENCES IN CULTURE:
1. CULTURAL VARIABILITY- there are differences
in culture because people devise different
solutions to problems of existence. People
make choices to satisfy their varied needs.

2. CULTURAL RELATIVITY- differences in culture

also arise due to differences in beliefs, values,
norms and standards that societies use for
interpreting the same or similar cultural trait.
Standards of behavior must be understood
within a society’s cultural context.

3. ENVIRONMENTAL DIFFERENCES- among the

factors that give rise to cultural differences are
the kind of one’s environment, the available
human and natural resources, the extent of
exposure to other people from whom they can
borrow ideas and their cultural heritage.

4. HUMAN INGENUITY AND ABILITY TO ABSORB

AND EXPAND NEW CULTURE- Although human
beings are similarly endowed with the same
biological make-up, some people appear to be
more adaptive, integrative, creative and
responsive to their natural and social
environments. Some people are more
inventive: they are risk-takers and trailblazers,
adventurers and innovators with pioneering
spirits.